We continue our countdown of the best Test batting performances on Australian soil since 2000
Top 20 in 2020: The best Test batting, 11-9
Re-live the countdown in full: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
There have been more than 250 scores of 100 of more in Tests in Australia so far this century, so narrowing it down to just 20 has been no easy task.
In judging the best performances, the cricket.com.au team considered the quality of the bowling attack, the difficulty of the conditions, strike rate, the length of the innings, the percentage of the team's total and the situation of the game.
A player's previous record and relative experience plus the impact their performance had on a match and a series also weighted heavily.
Before you get stuck into this countdown, you can re-live some other memorable batting performances by looking back on our 20 in 2020 Best Test Moments countdown from earlier this year.
11) AB de Villiers, 63 & 103no
South Africa v Australia, Perth, 2008
Image Id: F104E3C306BF4991804F611D99311F00By Martin Smith
The AB de Villiers who steered South Africa to an historic victory in Perth more than a decade ago was just a shadow of the batsman who came to be regarded as one of the best in the world.
The enviable natural ability that he had been blessed with from birth had always been bubbling below the surface, but to this point had gone somewhat unfulfilled.
But this match – and most of 2008 – would be his watershed.
Proteas legend Jacques Kallis remembers a stern conversation captain Graeme Smith and coach Mickey Arthur had with the then 24-year-old de Villiers at Lord's just five months before his match-winning performance at the WACA.
The leadership duo told the young star in no uncertain terms that the time had come for him to turn his incredible talent into consistent results.
From that point until the end of his Test career a decade later, he averaged more than 57 in Test cricket.
De Villiers' final-day century in a record-breaking run chase in Perth wasn't the lone hand in a memorable victory. Smith had done what good captains do and led by example, blazing a rapid hundred late on day four to give the tourists a sniff of chasing down the daunting target of 414.
But when de Villiers came to the crease with the shadows lengthening late in the day, the momentum that had swung like a pendulum throughout an extraordinary match was back with the hosts.
Image Id: 017910BB3ABB43E5AE9CD7210BE8486DBut not only did de Villiers survive the 10 overs to stumps, he gave a small preview of what was to come when he flicked the final ball of the day off his pads to the long-on boundary.
And on day five, he revealed the full show.
He and Kallis pushed the score along to 3-281 before the younger partner plundered two superb boundaries from Brett Lee's first over with the new ball; one slapped over the cordon and one crunched through cover.
Another punishing cover drive brought up a half-century – his second of the match – before he cracked Mitchell Johnson behind point for another stunning boundary.
Even more ominous for Australia was the surety with which de Villiers played in between the nine fours he hit during this innings. He left when he had to leave, defended when he had to defend and nudged and pushed his way to 38 singles, most of them square of the wicket.
Image Id: CC6FECB55DFD4CFCA709C003269DF771He brought up his seventh Test century – and South Africa's 400 – with a confident pull off Johnson to the boundary at deep backward square, receiving a rapturous reception from his teammates in the stands, a warm hug from his batting partner JP Duminy and a congratulatory handshake from the vanquished Lee.
It must be acknowledged that this wasn't just about de Villiers; Smith's century had set the tone, half-centuries from Amla and Kallis steadied the innings while debutant Duminy finished the match with a breezy fifty of his own.
But solid almost throughout was de Villiers, who showed the application and patience that – when combined with his incredible talent – would propel him to incredible heights in years that followed.
10) Kevin Pietersen, 227
England v Australia, Adelaide, 2010
Image Id: 4B3AD020387C4915A7A0DE5E28913337By Andrew Ramsey
It was the summit of a Test tenure that ultimately yielded more peaks than troughs.
The single biggest score by an England player in more than 130 years of Ashes contests at a venue that has hosted some of that rivalry's best remembered contests, and its most infamous flashpoint.
But Kevin Pietersen says his double century at Adelaide Oval in 2010 might never have come to pass if he'd got his way in the visitors' dressing room.
Pietersen's 227 from 308 balls faced was the high watermark of his decade-long international career, and paved the way for England's sole Ashes series win on Australian soil over the past 30 years.
However, he admits that he would not have gone to the wicket midway through day two of that Test as England exerted their dominance if teammate Paul Collingwood had accepted Pietersen's offer to bat above him in the order.
Having spent more than six hours fruitlessly waiting to bat during England's second innings of the drawn opening Test at the Gabba less than a week earlier, Pietersen was developing a severe dose of "pad rash" as Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott combined for another epic second-wicket stand in Adelaide.
At which point he felt he needed a break to freshen up, both physically and mentally.
"About five minutes before I had to go and bat I said to Colly, 'Mate, can we just swap over here?'," Pietersen recalled to cricket.com.au.
"And he was like, 'No'.
"And I was like, 'Cool, no worries'."
Image Id: 014F9ED561D04C049988BF78F7341F7BWithin minutes of his suggestion being rebuffed, Trott chipped a catch to mid-wicket and Pietersen – who had scored 158 in his previous Test appearance at Adelaide in 2006 – strutted to the middle with a surfeit of pent-up energy and a head full of steam.
The South Africa-born batsman charged down the pitch to the first delivery he received from spinner Xavier Doherty (just the second ball of his innings), slapped the next one to the point boundary and then advanced again to the third only to see his miscued leading edge float perilously between two Australia fielders at extra cover and point.
"I was like, 'No, no. I need to wind my neck in here, I need to engage'," Pietersen recalled.
"And I batted pretty well."
By the time he reached his first Test century in almost two years, it wasn't only Doherty and his part-time spin counterpart Marcus North that Pietersen had fixed in his cross hairs.
Pace pair Doug Bollinger (recalled for that Test in place of Mitchell Johnson, who was omitted from the starting XI) and Pietersen's regular nemesis Peter Siddle also found themselves in the firing line.
The exultant 'yeeess' that pealed from Pietersen when he tucked Ryan Harris to fine leg to reach the 17th Test hundred of a career that would ultimately yield 23, and then the even more demonstrative fist pump when he snuck a single to mid-off later that day to notch 200 betrayed the innings' personal significance.
Stung by getting dropped for the first time since earning selection for his adopted country in 2004, Pietersen had returned briefly to South Africa prior to that Ashes tour to seek out his long-time coach and mentor Graham Ford.
Within the space of a handful of throw downs in the practice nets, Ford immediately detected that his former protégé was no longer getting his head over the ball when batting.
The technical change that ensued was partly responsible for Pietersen's breakthrough innings, but his enduring fondness for the Adelaide Oval was also a significant factor.
"It's my favourite ground," he says.
"There's no other ground that I love more than the Adelaide Oval."
9) Michael Clarke, 230
Australia v South Africa, Adelaide, 2012
Image Id: E11BA60ACB724BC0AF59EE8146A7A631By Martin Smith
There was one breathtaking moment late on the opening day of the 2012 Adelaide Test that showed Australian captain Michael Clarke at the absolute peak of his powers.
Facing Proteas speedster Morne Morkel, who was ranked in the top 10 of the world's Test bowlers at the time, Clarke fiercely slashed the first ball of the 86th over – the fourth with the second new ball – to the rope at third man, one of 39 fours he would hit on an extraordinary first day.
But it was the next delivery that underlined the heights Clarke would reach during a golden run of form as captain, when he treated bowling of all kinds with disdain, including the searing pace and steepling bounce of Morkel.
Having first dropped short, the Proteas giant overcorrected with his next delivery and bowled a fuller delivery that zeroed in on Clarke's middle and off stump. But instead of pushing it straight along the ground, the Australian pressed onto his front foot and launched it high over the head of the bowler, who turned back sharply just as the ball bounced over the rope at long-on.
If the five fours that Clarke had hammered from Morkel's 18th over earlier in the day hadn't completely demoralised him, this shot surely did.
And if anyone knew just how the paceman felt it was his leg-spinning teammate Imran Tahir, who would finish Australia's first innings with the unflattering figures of 0-180 from just 23 overs, another victim of Clarke's ruthless display.
In the 24 months from the start of 2012 to the end of the following year, Clarke was a batsman almost without peer.
In 24 Tests in four countries, he plundered more than 2600 runs at an average exceeding 70, with four of his nine centuries in that time scores of more than 200, all of which came in 2012.
And it was the fourth of those mighty hundreds that was his most dominating, his most destructive, and his most commanding.
Image Id: D05A5920864542F2989061726EC26C90Against a side led by the world's top-ranked bowler Dale Steyn and his offsider Morkel, Clarke came to the crease on that warm Adelaide day with his side in trouble at 3-55 before he and opener David Warner went on the attack.
The pair slammed a 150-run stand in less than 25 overs and the carnage only continued after Warner departed early in the second session for a 112-ball innings of 119.
With Mike Hussey for support, Clarke went on a boundary blitz as Australia rollicked along at close to a run a ball for the entire day.
By the close, the Australians had slammed 482 in less than 87 overs. And when Clarke was finally dismissed the following morning for the first time in the series, having scored 489 unbeaten runs across two Tests, he had 230 to his name from just 257 deliveries
It was his second double hundred in consecutive games and his fourth in the space of just eight Tests (including a triple century), surpassing the likes of Sir Donald Bradman and Ricky Ponting for the most Test 200s in a calendar year.
And stamping Clarke's 2012 as one of the most dominant years any modern batsman has ever enjoyed.
Top 20 in 2020: Best Test batting in Australia since 2000
20) Ricky Pontingv South Africa, Sydney, 2006
19) Virender Sehwagv Australia, Melbourne, 2003
18) David Warnerv New Zealand, Hobart, 2011
17) Virat Kohliv Australia, Adelaide, 2014
16) Alastair Cookv Australia, Brisbane, 2010
15) VVS Laxmanv Australia, Sydney, 2000
14) Steve Smithv England, Perth, 2017
13) Hashim Amlav Australia, Perth, 2012
12) Cheteshwar Pujarav Australia, Adelaide, 2018
11) AB de Villiersv Australia, Perth, 2008
10) Kevin Pietersenv Australia, Adelaide, 2010
9) Michael Clarkev South Africa, Adelaide, 2012
8) Steve Smithv England, Brisbane, 2017
7) Kumar Sangakkara v Australia, Hobart, 2007
6) Sachin Tendulkar v Australia, Sydney, 2004
5) Brian Larav Australia, Adelaide, 2005
4) JP Duminyv Australia, Melbourne, 2008
3) Rahul Dravidv Australia, Adelaide, 2003
2) Ricky Pontingv India, Melbourne, 2003
1) Faf du Plessisv Australia, Adelaide 2012